46 Profitableness of Chicory. 



were sown on a fallow, and grazed about Michaelmas 

 for a month with five sheep an acre. In 1797 it kept 

 six sheep an acre from the second week in April until 

 Michaelmas. On 4^ acres, which were sown broadcast 

 with chicory, ten sheep an acre- were kept the first year, 

 1796, from first week in April to July 22, and then seven 

 per acre to end of October. In 1797 it kept seven sheep 

 per acre, and they had done well. Mr. May, near Ipswich, 

 found chicory the best plant for sheep feed on poor dry 

 soils, and that it did not suffer from dry weather like 

 sainfoin or bumet ; and he observed it to' grow 7 inches 

 in three weeks, while the two latter plants, on the same 

 soil, in the same field, as near together as possible, 

 grew no more than 4 inches. Numerous evidences were 

 given by Arthur Young to prove that the produce of 

 chicory is at least equal to that of any known plant in 

 this climate. It remains many years in the ground. 

 From his experiments, 62 tons 18 cwt. of the green 

 produce was cut in a year. " It will yield a profitable 

 support," he says, "for sheep when the more common 

 plants have almost entirely failed." Chicory hay is as 

 readily eaten by live stock as any other. In the South 

 of Scotland clover falls oif so much in the second, and 

 still more in the third, year, that a farmer sowed on a 

 large scale a mixture of chicory, and the plants kept the 

 ground so well that he was disposed to extend the 

 cultivation, but he was deterred by the price of the seed. 

 Chicory, he further states, is difiicult to eradicate* when 

 ploughing up, but in no proportion that ought to render 

 it any objection to the culture. With reference to the 

 duration of chicory,t he mentions that in 1790 12 acres 



* This is contrary to our experience at Clifton-on-Bowmont. 



t In 1893 the Haugh, 28 acres, was laid down, and in the mixture 

 were 2 lbs. 8ach of chicory and kidney vetch, and 3 lbs. burnet. The 

 Jfieldwas ploughed at the end of 1900, and turnips taken in 1901. The 

 turnips were a fine crop, and the land was very clean, though no weeds 

 were taken ofE. From the fence being shifted on the bank of the 

 Bowmont a narrow strip next the fence was left unploughed. This 



